A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure.

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

True happiness is born of letting go of what is unnecessary.

The key to transformation is not to fight with our experience but to open to it with awareness.

If it isn't good, let it die. If it doesn't die, make it good.

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping.

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another.

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

In true vipassana practice, there is no room for likes and dislikes. There is only observation.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself.

The Noble Eightfold Path is not a path of mere intellectual understanding but a path of practice, of inner transformation.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

True happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through cultivation of altruism, of love, of compassion.

The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.

The mind is like a room with many windows. Open them all and let the fresh air in.

The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.

Although all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, they function perfectly well.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

Zen is not necessarily against words, but it is well aware of their limitations.

The one who grasps at existence suffers in samsara, while the one who grasps at non-existence will find no liberation.

The only way to experience truth is to look within, to observe oneself.

By understanding emptiness, one understands all phenomena. Without understanding emptiness, one understands nothing.

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.

The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with.

Dependent origination is not a theory about the origin of the world but a teaching that shows how suffering originates in dependence on our own mental processes.

The cultivation of loving-kindness has the power to transform enmity into amity, hostility into hospitality.

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

The more you give, the more you have. That's the economics of kindness.